What to say about this past year that hasn’t already been said? As an avid twitter lurker, I’ve seen mostly negative things written about these past 12 months, and it’s no secret why this was the worst year of many people’s lives. My family has muddled through these times with a little less grace than usual, but both my husband and I are lucky enough to have desk jobs that allow us to work from home, and our kids are back in school and daycare, so I have much to be grateful for. And I know I’m not the only bookworm who is giddy with delight at the lack of reasons to leave the house; this will probably be one of the few times in my life that consistently staying home and snuggling up with books will be labelled as a good deed. Many people struggled with their reading this year, which is completely understandable given the new stresses we are dealing with, but I took advantage (and continue to take advantage) of this pause in my social calendar to hunker down and get more reading done.
I’m proud of my bookish accomplishments this year: I reached my goodreads goal of reading 105 books, worked on a refresh of this website, started a bookish newsletter and an online book club, published a few reviews and articles and got a job at Calgary Reads. Truth be told I think this was the busiest year I’ve ever had book-wise, but I’ve been able to spend lots more time with my family just playing games, putting together puzzles and cooking nice meals. I know I’m in a very privileged position to be able to say this but all things considered… 2020 was a great year for me.
I started this blog back in 2013, which seems so long ago because it was before I had kids, and sometimes I have trouble remembering what that was like. Lots of people don’t understand why I blog because it takes up so much of time, and it’s not like I get paid to write on my own website! The free books are nice, but I could always use the library if that was the issue. I do it because I love talking about the books I’ve read and I hope it encourages others to read, plus the other book reviewers I’ve met through blogging have become an important part of my online life. I guess my wish is that everyone could find a similar outlet because book blogging consistently gives me so much joy, and being able to continue with this during the pandemic is a big reason why I continue to feel so optimistic and grateful for everything and everyone I currently have in my life. Ok, enough with this wishy washy stuff, let’s get to the summary:
My Favourite Book of the Year: Wow, No Thank You by Samantha Irby
The Book I Recommended Most: Anxious People by Fredrik Backman
Most Popular 2020 Review posted: From the Ashes by Jesse Thistle (this was technically posted in December 2019)
Below is the full list of books I’ve read, with links to my reviews if available. Some books I don’t review on this blog because I’ve read them for a specific organization, or had the review published in a separate media outlet. This year, I made an effort to read more books by BIPOC populations, and I’ll continue to do this as I request new books for review.
- Three Women by Lisa Taddeo
- The Man Who Played with Fire by Jan Stocklassa
- Chase Darkness with Me by Billy Jensen
- Catch and Kill by Ronan Farrow
- Don’t You Forget About Me by Mhairi McFarlane
- Starlight by Richard Wagamese
- The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
- Ducks, Newburyport by Lucy Ellmann
- The Farm by Joanne Ramos
- Pieces of Her by Karin Slaughter
- NDN Coping Mechanisms by Billy-Ray Belcourt
- Processed Cheese by Stephen Wright
- Relative Fortunes by Marlowe Benn
- The Empress of Idaho by Todd Babiak
- A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle
- The Sign of Four by Arthur Conan Doyle
- The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead
- Barry Sonnenfeld, Call Your Mother by Barry Sonnenfeld
- Bina by Anakana Schofield
- These Ghosts are Family by Maisy Card
- Kill the Mall by Pasha Malla
- Here I Am! by Pauline Holdstock
- This Has Nothing to Do With You by Lauren Carter
- Recipe for a Perfect Wife by Karma Brown
- Holding on to Normal by Alana Somerville
- Woman on the Edge by Samantha M. Bailey
- Someday Jennifer by Risto Pakarinen
- The Student by Cary Fagan
- Hideaway by Nicole Lundrigan
- Woke by Titania McGrath
- Actress by Anne Enright
- Perfect Tunes by Emily Gould
- Talking to Strangers by Marianne Boucher
- The Stationery Shop by Marjan Kamali
- Best Canadian Essays 2019-Edited by Emily Donaldson
- Wow, No Thank You by Samantha Irby
- Cutting Edge, Stories -Edited by Joyce Carol Oates
- The Subtweet by Vivek Shraya
- Songs for the End of the World by Saleema Nawaz
- Ridgerunner by Gil Adamson
- The Last High by Daniel Kalla
- My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell
- How to Raise Successful People by Esther Wojcicki
- I’ve Been Meaning to Tell You by David Chariandy
- Trained to Hunt by Simon Gervais
- Whisper Network by Chandler Baker
- The Dishwasher by Stephane Larue
- No More Nice Girls by Lauren McKeon
- The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones
- The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel
- Becoming a Man by P.Carl
- The Union of Smokers by Paddy Scott
- Hello, Summer by Mary Kay Andrews
- All the Lost Things by Michelle Sacks
- Camp Girls by Iris Krasnow
- Conventionally Yours by Annabeth Albert
- Pass Me By, Gone Fishin’ by Kyle Simmers and Ryan Danny Owen
- The Mercies by Kiran Millwood Hargrave
- Long Bright River by Liz Moore
- The Ghost in the House by Sara O’Leary
- The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix
- Death and the Seaside by Alison Moore
- You Can’t Catch Me by Catherine McKenzie
- Indians on Vacation by Thomas King
- The Jane Austen Society by Natalie Jenner
- The Braver Thing by Clifford Jackman
- Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 by Cho Nam-Joo
- The Adventures of Isabel by Candas Jane Dorsey
- A Russian Sister by Caroline Adderson
- Mad Cow by Alexis Kienlen
- Seven Lies by Elizabeth Kay
- How to Raise a Reader by Pamela Paul and Maria Russo
- How to Pronounce Knife by Souvankahm Thammavongsa
- The Residence by Andrew Pyper
- The Children of Red Peak by Criag DiLouie
- Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
- Plain Bad Heroines by emily m. danforth
- Anxious People by Fredrik Backman
- Consider This by Chuck Palahniuk
- The Orphan of Cemetery Hill by Hester Fox
- The Beguiling by Zsuzsi Gartner
- Watching You Without Me by Lynn Coady
- In the House in the Dark of the Woods by Laird Hunt
- Big Friendship by Aminatou Sow and Ann Friedman
- Harry’s Trees by Jon Cohen
- A History of my Brief Body by Billy-Ray Belcourt
- White Ivy by Susie Yang
- Rabbit Foot Bill by Helen Humphreys
- Calm Christmas and a Happy New Year by Beth Kempton
- One More for Christmas by Sarah Morgan
- The Atlas of Christmas by Alex Palmer
- El Jefe; The Stalking of Chapo Guzman by Alan Feuer
- How to Eat Your Christmas Tree by Julia Georgallis
- Why the Rock Falls by J.E. Barnard
- Vermin by Lori Hahnel
- The Sea Gate by Jane Johnson
- God Loves Hair by Vivek Shraya
- The Finder by Will Ferguson
- Group by Christie Tate
- The 19th Christmas by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro
- The Paris Library by Janet Skeslien Charles
- A Dog’s Perfect Christmas by W. Bruce Cameron
- The Gucci Mane Guide to Greatness by Gucci Mane
- The 2020 Short Story Advent Calendar
- Impossible Parenting by Olivia Scobie
I can quite understand how the opportunity to work from home must have been great for people whose job allowed them that option. I only worked from home rarely for a few days at a time, usually when snowed in – Scotland is not good at coping with snow! But the sheer luxury of not having a commute and not having to wear office clothes and, frankly, not having to spend a lot of time chatting with colleagues – I found I could get through a day’s work by lunchtime! Don’t know that I’d have wanted to do it forever, but it felt like a little holiday. So don’t feel guilty for having a good year! Next year, when you’re back in the rat race and I’m allowed to leave prison, I’ll gloat back at you… 😉
I wasn’t sure how people would react to that comment, I feel quite guilty about it saying I had a good year but it’s the truth! Plus, I always like to look on the bright side of things…
Wow you are a serious reader! I so enjoyed looking through the list of books that you read and 2020. I’ve had a couple of them but I did not come close to your level of reading! I’m not much of a Twitter lurker I’m more of an Instagram lurker. It seems a lot happier there. 😀
Instagram is definitely much happier! ahah I’m just a glutton for punishment it seems
Congrats on your excellent reading year! I don’t think you need to feel guilty about 2020 being a good year for you, though I definitely understand the urge. It’s a year that has shown a lot of us new priorities and ways to live and that can be a good thing.
I’m a small Twitter lurker, but the thing that hit me and made me stop lurking so much is I realized that everyone on Twitter really, really sounds like they know what they’re talking about, but in reality they’re just some goofball with an opinion, and the internet has latched on to it. That’s whole lot of being online. Even the academics and authors I follow lose their minds sometimes. The stuff Roxane Gay say. Yeesh. I stopped following her a while back.
I really hope you do go back and read Irby’s three memoirs in order; I think you’ll get even more from Wow, No Thank You and laugh even harder!
I know, I really need to read them. And that’s a very good point about Twitter, I need to constantly remind myself that it’s not real life haha
I love that you have positive things to say about 2020! We were very fortunate, too, in terms of being able to work from home, etc. And most of us are introverts who took advantage of the fact that we had no place to go. However, I also got a front seat peek at the downside of things for people who suffer from mental illness. But my wish for the new year hasn’t changed – I hope everyone’s new year is better than their last!
You had an amazing year, Anne! So many great things going on – and so many books!
If Kirby’s book is your book of the year, then I better put it on my list, because that’s quite an accomplishment. Anxious People has been on hold since I read your review. 🙂
Oh I hope you get to Anxious People soon! And yes Samantha Irby is perfect for a good laugh
Imagine all the reading you could be doing while you’re avidly lurking on Twitter. LOL It’s terrific that you’ve been so fortunate and that you feel your bookblog is a saving grace and creative outlet. Given that we both read a lot of Canadian writers, and that I’ve read about a hundred of them this year, I’m surprised there’s not very much overlap in our reading lists (about a dozen books, I think) and that much of that overlap isn’t actually CanLit (Taddeo, Jackson, etc.). Do you track your reading mainly for your blog, or do you keep a spreadsheet or list or notebook beyond this blog?
I track my reading in two different places (because apparently I like being complicated); goodreads, and a notebook. One of the main reasons I like to track it is because i just want to end up with a big list of all the books I’ve ever read in my lifetime. Maybe I’ll take it to the grave with me hahaah
I’m so glad 2020 was good for somebody! Ha ha ha! 😉 Seriously, you had a terrific reading year, and I’m glad you’re still blogging!
Thanks Laila 😉